quartet

American  

[kwawr-tet] / kwɔrˈtɛt /

especially British, quartette

noun

• quartets
  plural

1. any group of four persons or things.

2. an organized group of four singers or players.

3. a musical composition for four voices or instruments.

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quartet British  

/ kwɔːˈtɛt /

noun

1. a group of four singers or instrumentalists or a piece of music composed for such a group See string quartet

2. any group of four

   a quartet of fast bowlers

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quartet Cultural  

1. A group of four musicians or singers; also, a piece of music for four instruments or voices.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• quartets
  plural

Etymology

Origin of quartet

1765–75; < Italian quartetto, diminutive of quarto < Latin quartus fourth

Explanation

A quartet is a musical group with four members. If you play the viola, you might form a string quartet with two violinists and a cellist. You can use the noun quartet to describe your four-person singing group, and you can also use it to talk about the piece of music you're performing, if it's written specifically for four voices or instruments. The word quartet comes from the Italian quarto, or "fourth," which in turn has it roots in the Latin quartus, also meaning "fourth."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

quartet quartets

The “Beef” quartet — Mulligan and Oscar Isaac playing striving, bickering millennials, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeney as their younger, equally desperate counterparts — split their submissions between lead and supporting.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

One unusual aspect of these works is that they were not composed on the piano but directly on the sax, with fellow quartet members Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake and David Murray in mind.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

The fact that a quartet of such caliber signed on to this dreck would be surprising if Netflix’s M.O. weren’t trapping great actors in middling movies.

From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026

A quartet of true freshmen pass-catchers trotted onto the Coliseum field around noon Saturday, taking their places to either flank of USC’s far-older quarterback.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

A quartet of slick trombones played a Sousa march as the steamer Kennebec came in sight of the wharf.

From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt

ANAHEIM, Calif.—Walt Disney designed Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A. to transport visitors out of the modern world into a family-friendly fantasy packed with old-fashioned storefronts and barbershop quartets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

String quartets strummed their way through classical covers of pop hits.

From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2026

It’s difficult to imagine even the earliest of Shostakovich’s quartets without some grit in the sound.

From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2024

This fall, the Calidore returns to Colburn to survey a hometown composer, the Hollywood film-score icon Erich Wolfgang Korngold, playing his little-known three string quartets in the first program, in Zipper Hall.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2024

The reason for this is that, like Beethoven’s late quartets, Chopin’s music is unusually intimate.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Related Words

• assemblage
• band
• cast
• choir
• chorus
• orchestra
• quintet
• sextet
• trio
• troupe